Total SCRABBLE

[Pages:100]Total SCRABBLE?

The (Un)Official SCRABBLE? Record Book

Jan 2009 Update

Compiled by Keith W. Smith

Page 1

Copyright 2003, 2005, 2009 Keith W. Smith HASBRO is the owner of the registered SCRABBLE? trademark in the United States and Canada. ? 2005 HASBRO. All rights reserved. The SCRABBLE? trademark is owned by J.W. Spear and Sons, PLC, a subsidiary of Mattel, Inc. outside of the United States and Canada.

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Acknowledgements

This work would not have been possible without the support of the following people who provided information, suggestions and support:

Steven Alexander, Paul Avrin, Mike Baron, Lynn Cushman, Bruce D'Ambrosio, Darrell Day, Jan Dixon, Mike Early, Joe Edley, Dave Engelhardt, Paul Epstein, Stefan Fatsis, Mady Garner, Stu Goldman, Bernard Gotlieb, Ren? Gotfryd, John C Green Jr, Ron Hoekstra, Joel Horn, Robert Kahn, Sam Kantimathi, Carol Kaplan, Zev Kaufman, Jim Kramer, John Luebkemann, Joey Mallick, Lloyd Mills, Louie Muller, Philip Nelkon, Rita Norr, Steve Oliger, Jim Pate, Trip Payne, Bryan Pepper, Dan Pratt, Mark Przybyszewski, Mary Rhoades, Ann Sanfedele, Bob Schoenman, Peter Schwartzman, Dee Segrest, Joel Sherman, David Stone, Geoff Thevenot, Graeme Thomas, Ron Tiekert, Susi Tiekert, Joel Wapnick, Dave Wiegand, and Ben Withers.

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A Plea

The first thing you need to know about the book you are holding is that it's incomplete. As much as I'd like to have used complete data for every tournament ever played, I just don't have it (and in many cases it may not exist). Future editions will include more complete information and I hope to eventually have complete information. In addition, given my lack of an editor or proofreaders, errors have no doubt crept in, whether through my own mistakes, or those in my original sources.

If you would like to send me tournament results, issues of Matchups, or any other information, or if you want to send me corrections to information or updates to records presented herein, you may do so at the addresses listed below. Data sources are listed in Appendix A, so please check there first before sending information: Send information to: e-mail address: Astrp3@ mailing address: Keith Smith

4210 Red River #217 Austin, TX 78751

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Table of Contents

Introduction A Brief History of Tournament SCRABBLE? - The Early Years SCRABBLE? Timeline Records and Statistics

Single Game Records Tournament Records - Players Tournament Records - Ratings and Expert Points Tournament Records - Tournaments Majors Records Nationals Records Worlds Records International Title Records Hypothetical Records Odds and Ends The 14 Greatest SCRABBLE? Performances The 11 Greatest SCRABBLE? Career Accomplishments he First 100 SCRABBLE? Clubs 10+ Letter Bingos NSA Mike Wise Director/Person of the Year Award Matchups SCRABBLE? Hall of Fame English Language SCRABBLE? Periodicals English Language SCRABBLE? Films and Television Broadcasts Ratings and Rankings A Brief History of SCRABBLE? Ratings Historical Peak Ratings Historical Peak Rankings The Majors 1978 Nationals (New York City) 1980 Nationals (Santa Monica) 1983 Nationals (Chicago) 1985 Nationals (Boston) 1987 Nationals (Las Vegas) 1988 Nationals (Reno) 1989 Nationals (New York City) 1990 Nationals (Washington D.C.) 1992 Nationals (Atlanta) 1994 Nationals (Los Angeles) 1996 Nationals (Dallas) 1998 Nationals (Chicago) 2000 Nationals (Providence) 2002 Nationals (San Diego) 2004 Nationals (New Orleans) 2005 Nationals (Reno) 2006 Nationals (Phoenix) 2008 Nationals (Orlando) 1991 Worlds (London)

7 8 12 17 18 30 40 46 49 51 58 63 65 71 73 76 78 80 82 83 84 85 87 88 90 92 94 96 101 105 108 114 120 124 128 132 136 140 144 148 153 158 162 167 171 177

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1993 Worlds (New York)

179

1995 Worlds (London)

182

1997 Worlds (Washington D.C.)

185

1999 Worlds (Melbourne)

188

2001 Worlds (Las Vegas)

191

2003 Worlds (Kuala Lumpur)

194

2005 Worlds (London)

196

2007 Worlds (Mumbai)

198

1995 SCRABBLE? Superstar Showdown (Las Vegas)

201

2003 All*Stars Championship (Providence)

204

The Champions

233

David Prinz (1978 National Champ)

209

Joe Edley (1980, 1992, 2000 Nationals Champ)

210

Joel Wapnick (1983 National Champ, 1999 World Champ)

212

Ron Tiekert (1985 National Champ)

214

Rita Norr (1987 National Champ)

216

Robert Watson (1988 National Champ)

217

Peter Morris (1989 National Champ, 1991 World Champ)

218

Robert Felt (1990 National Champ)

219

David Gibson (1994 National Champ)

221

Adam Logan (1996 National Champ)

222

Brian Cappelletto (1998 National Champ, 2001 World Champ)

223

Joel Sherman (2002 National Champ, 1997 World Champ)

225

Trey Wright (2004 National Champ)

227

Dave Wiegand (2005 National Champ)

228

Jim Kramer (2007 National Champ)

230

Nigel Richards (2008 National Champ, 2007 World Champ)

232

Mark Nyman (1993 World Champ)

233

David Boys (1995 World Champ)

235

Panupol Sujjayakorn (2003 World Champ)

237

James Leong (The Players Champ 2007)

238

International Champions

239

All-Time Tournament Winners - By Tournament

252

U.S. Tournaments

254

Canadian Tournaments

292

Foreign Tournaments

297

All-Time Tournament Winners - By Player

298

Appendix A: Data Sources

321

Bibliography

322

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Introduction

Ever since I can remember, I have been fascinated by statistics. One of the first books I ever read was the Guinness Book of World Records. Then I turned to baseball and spent hours poring over the Baseball Encyclopedia (and later Total Baseball, which served as inspiration for the title of this work). Later, I discovered Bill James' Baseball Abstract and became a member of SABR (the Society for American Baseball Research). It was only natural then, that when I started playing tournament SCRABBLE? in 2002, I began looking for similar statistical information on the game. I soon discovered that such information, if it existed at all, was not readily available. Even among longtime SCRABBLE? players, there just didn't seem to be much interest in the game's history or records and statistics. There were a few exceptions, such as Joey Mallick, but even in the electronic era, no one seemed interested in putting the information together. Concluding that there probably never would be, I turned to other interests. In 2004, budding expert player Winter created a database of tournament results from the NSA website, but it didn't include key information such as ratings, spread, and the division in which people played. Also in 2004 came Jim Hughes SCRABBLE? Daddies website, but Jim lacked time to maintain the data (and also failed to combine the results of tournaments rated in segments).

Finally, I decided to get the information myself, and created my own database of tournament results using data from the NSA website. At first, I considered the project nothing more than a toy something I could use to post a few interesting stats before turning again to other things. It would have been nice, I thought, to have a database of complete tournament stats going back to 1973, and a record book would be even nicer, but alas, no one was going to do it. A few weeks later, I decided that I would do it, or at least try, despite my lack of information. A three-hour trip to Dallas to raid longtime director (and player) Mary Rhoades' archive of SCRABBLE? News and tournament cross-tables followed and I realized that the possibility of creating such a book was very close to being a reality. Several weeks, and what seemed like thousands of manually-entered tournament results later, the first edition was done and I finally had the book I'd wanted for two years. I hope that others will enjoy reading this as much as I did putting it together, but even if no one else were to read it, I felt it was well worth my time writing it.

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A Brief History

of Tournament

SCRABBLE?

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